Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping country hits "King of the Road", "Dang Me", and "England Swings".
For other people named Roger Miller, see Roger Miller (disambiguation).
Roger Miller
October 25, 1992 (aged 56)
Roger Miller Sr.
Roger D. Miller Sr.
"The Wild Child"
Singer, songwriter, musician, actor
1957–1992
8, including Dean
Vocals, guitar, fiddle, drums
After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the U.S. Army, Miller began his musical career as a songwriter in the late 1950s, writing such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price. He later began a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the mid-1960s, continuing to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit "Old Friends" with Price and Willie Nelson in 1982. He also wrote and performed several of the songs for the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood. Later in his life, he wrote the music and lyrics for the 1985 Tony Award−winning Broadway musical Big River, in which he acted.
Miller died from lung cancer in 1992 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame three years later. His songs continued to be recorded by other singers, with covers of "Tall, Tall Trees" by Alan Jackson and "Husbands and Wives" by Brooks & Dunn; both reached the number one spot on country charts in the 1990s. The Roger Miller Museum — now closed — in his home town of Erick, Oklahoma, was a tribute to Miller.
Early life[edit]
Roger Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the third son of Jean and Laudene (Holt) Miller. Jean Miller died from spinal meningitis when Miller was a year old. Unable to support the family during the Great Depression,[1] Laudene sent her three sons to live with three of Jean's brothers. Thus, Miller grew up on a farm outside Erick, Oklahoma, with Elmer and Armelia Miller.[2]
As a boy, Miller did farm work, such as picking cotton and plowing. He later said he was "dirt poor" and that as late as 1951 the family did not own a telephone.[3] He received his primary education at a one-room schoolhouse. Miller was an introverted child who often daydreamed or composed songs. One of his earliest compositions went: "There's a picture on the wall. It's the dearest of them all, Mother."[1]
Miller was a member of the FFA in high school.[3] He listened to the Grand Ole Opry and Light Crust Doughboys on a Fort Worth station with his cousin's husband, Sheb Wooley. Wooley taught Miller his first guitar chords and bought him a fiddle. Wooley, Hank Williams, and Bob Wills were the influences that led to Miller's desire to be a singer-songwriter. He began to run away and perform in Oklahoma and Texas. At 17, he stole a guitar out of desperation to write songs; however, he turned himself in the next day. He chose to enlist in the U.S. Army to avoid jail. He later quipped, "My education was Korea, Clash of '52." Near the end of his military service, while stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, Miller played fiddle in the "Circle A Wranglers", a military musical group started by Faron Young.[1] While Miller was stationed in South Carolina, an army sergeant whose brother was Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns, from the musical duo Homer and Jethro, persuaded him to head to Nashville after his discharge.[2]
Career[edit]
Nashville songwriter[edit]
On leaving the Army, Miller traveled to Nashville to begin his musical career. He met with Chet Atkins, who asked to hear him sing, loaning him a guitar since Miller did not own one. Out of nervousness, Miller played the guitar and sang a song in two different keys. Atkins advised him to come back later, when he had more experience. Miller found work as a bellhop at Nashville's Andrew Jackson Hotel, and he was soon known as the "singing bellhop." He was finally hired by Minnie Pearl to play the fiddle in her band.[4] He then met George Jones, who introduced him to music executives from the Starday Records label who scheduled an audition. Impressed, the executives set up a recording session with Jones in Houston. Jones and Miller collaborated to write "Tall, Tall Trees" and "Happy Child."[1]
Style[edit]
Although he is usually grouped with country music singers, Miller's unique style defies easy classification. Many of his recordings were humorous novelty songs with whimsical lyrics, coupled with scat singing or vocalese riffs filled with nonsense syllables.[16] Others were sincere ballads which caught the public's fancy, like his signature song, "King of the Road".[17] The biographical book Ain't Got No Cigarettes described Miller as an "uncategorizable talent" and stated that many regarded him as a genius.[18]
Miller's whimsical lyrics and nonsense sounding style led to him writing and performing songs for children's films such as "Oo-de-Lally" for the Disney animated film Robin Hood.[19] During his most successful years as a songwriter and singer, Miller's music was placed in the country genre due to his somewhat country or folk sounding voice and the use of an acoustic guitar.[20] AllMusic wrote that in blending country with jazz, blues, and pop, Miller "utilized unusual harmonic and rhythmic devices in his sophisticated songcraft" and was an important influence on progressive country.[21]
On his own style, Miller remarked that he "tried to do" things like other artists but that it "always came out different" so he got "frustrated" until realizing "I'm the only one that knows what I'm thinking." He commented that the favorite song that he wrote was "You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd."[17] Johnny Cash discussed Miller's bass vocal range in his 1997 autobiography. He stated that it was the closest to his own that he had heard.[22]
Personal life and death[edit]
Miller was married three times and fathered eight children. Miller married Barbara Crow, from Shamrock, Texas, when they were both 17. Together the couple had four children, the first of whom died shortly after birth. As Miller's young family grew, his desire for fame and success continued to grow as well. After moving the family to California for a short time, Miller and Barbara divorced. Subsequent public interest in Miller led to the success he had long hoped for, but it also brought struggles that are often associated with life in the entertainment business: periods of burnout as well as alcohol[23] and substance abuse. His amphetamine use in the 1960s[24] has been described as both damaging of his career and helpful to his songwriting.[25] In 1972 he referred to amphetamines as "a snake pit I got into" and supported a ban on the drug in Oklahoma.[26]
Miller married Leah Kendrick of San Antonio in 1964. Together the couple had two children, Dean and Shannon.
After 14 years of marriage, Leah and Miller divorced in the mid-1970s. Miller eventually married Mary Arnold, whom he met through Kenny Rogers. Arnold was a replacement member in The First Edition, a band led by Rogers. After the breakup of The First Edition, she performed with her husband Miller on tours as a backup singer, including a performance at the White House before President Gerald Ford. In 2009 she was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.[27] Since Miller's death, she has managed his estate. She sued Sony for copyright infringement in the 2007 case Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV Publishing, LLC, which went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[28] Arnold was ultimately awarded nearly $1 million in royalties and rights to the songs Miller wrote in 1964.[29]
Miller was a lifelong cigarette smoker. During a television interview, Miller explained how he composed his songs from "bits and pieces" of ideas he wrote on scraps of paper. When asked what he did with the unused bits and pieces, he half-joked, "I smoke 'em!" He also wrote a song about his habit, titled "Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit". Miller died of lung and throat cancer in 1992, at age 56, shortly after the discovery of a malignant tumor beneath his vocal cords.[2]
In addition to 11 Grammy Awards, Roger Miller won Broadway's Tony Award for writing the music and lyrics for Big River, which won a total of 7 Tony's including best musical in 1985.[30] He was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973[31] and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995.[32] Miller won 11 Grammy Awards.[33] In Erick, Oklahoma, where he grew up, a thoroughfare was renamed "Roger Miller Boulevard" and a museum dedicated to Miller was built on the road in 2004.[34]
Below is a list of awards won by Miller:[35]